The scopes of citizen participation in local democracy: Popayán, Colombia 2016

Abstract

This article addresses the scope of citizen participation at Popayán, from the effectiveness of the regulation established to guarantee it exercise and the relevance of the processes of the peace agreements between the Government and farc-ep and the strengthening of local democracy. In this way the general objective to analyze the perception that had the citizens of Popayán about the effectiveness of the mechanisms and spaces of citizen perception arranged in the constitution and laws during 2016. The investigation has been developed with two methods: the statistic with survey techniques which measured the citizen perception, and the use of historiography method with documental analysis where it was review some press information to strengthen the quantitive information interpretation.The central argument of the article is that even though the Colombian legal system has provided a set of rules about governing citizen participation, its guarantee does not depend exclusively on its object; on the contrary it requires a favorable environment that promotes and facilitates the connecting link and the belonging to the mechanisms and the provided spaces. Factors such as limited institutional capacity to deal with social demands, corruption and bureaucratization of public administration have a negatively impact on the institutional trust and represent the main obstacles to citizen participation.